


No Need for Accents

by meils121



Category: Leverage
Genre: Family Feels, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 12:59:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17044205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meils121/pseuds/meils121
Summary: Parker is frustrated after a job requires grifting skills instead of her particular set of safe-cracking abilities.  She goes to Sophie for help learning how to be a better grifter, and learns a few other things along the way.





	No Need for Accents

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dazebras](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dazebras/gifts).



          It’s a snowy day in Boston, the kind of day that’s good for drinking a mug of Eliot’s hot chocolate and curling up with a good book.  Which is exactly what Sophie is doing when Parker storms into the room and sits down in a huff.  

          “Parker?”  Sophie sets down her book and looks at the younger woman.  “What’s going on?”  

          It takes a few minutes for Parker to actually start speaking, but that, at least, Sophie understands.  Parker still struggles sometimes finding words to match her thoughts - a product, Sophie thinks, of the fact she spent so many years working on her own.  

          “I don’t like not being useful.”  She says.  “When I worked alone, I was always useful.”

          “This is about the last job?”  Sophie clarifies.  When Parker nods, Sophie leans forward and props her head in one hand.  “You were useful, Parker.”

          “No, I wasn’t.”  Parker snaps.  “I couldn’t do anything.  You did it.  You got the safe open, not me.  That’s my job!”

          “Parker-” Sophie stops herself and takes a deep breath.  This might get complicated.  “Yes, it is.  Normally.  But you know as well as I do that a good thief adapts to the situation.  That’s what we did.  We adapted.”

          “But I can’t adapt.”  Parker says, and her voice goes from angry to sad, to _little-girl-lost_ that makes Sophie want to wrap her up in a hug.  

          “You adapt all the time, Parker.”  Sophie says.  It’s the truth, too.  Parker adapts to situations in a way Sophie’s never seen before.  She sees a maze of laser grids and air ducts, of sensors and alarms and locks, and somehow knows when to backtrack and when to keep going.  

          “Not like you.”  

          “What do you mean?”

          Parker sighs, clearly frustrated that Sophie isn’t getting the meaning behind her words.  “I couldn’t get to the safe.”  She says.  “The security system was too intense and the safe too high-tech.  I couldn’t adapt.  If I was on my own, it would have been game over, okay?  And then you just - just - just get them to open the safe.  Just like that.”

          “That’s why we’re a team.  So when it doesn’t work one way, we can find another way.”

          “But - I don’t like it.”  Parker says.  “I don’t like not knowing things.  It’s scary.”

          “It is.”  Sophie agrees.  “And so is learning to work with others.  None of us came here very good at that part.”

          Parker finally cracks a smile.  “No.”  She agrees.  “Definitely not.”  

          “But, if you want, I can teach you.”  Sophie offers.  “Give you some tips on grifting skills.  They may not get you all the way to a safe like this last job, but they could help.”

          Parker cocks her head, considering this.  “I don’t think I’d be very good.”

          “It’s a learning process.”  Sophie says.  “You probably won’t be, at the start.  Just like I’d be horrible at navigating a laser grid right after you tried to teach me.  But practice helps with anything.”

          “Okay.”  Parker says.  “Let’s do it.”  She stares at Sophie.  “Where do we start?  With accents?  I can do an Australian accent.”  

          Sophie has heard that particular attempt before, and it’s _awful_.  “You don’t need accents.  You need persuasion and confidence.  You need to know how to read people.”  She says.  “Not disguises.  It’s about convincing people to believe you are who you say you are - not who you appear to be.”

          “Sounds complicated.”

          “So is your job.”  

          Parker frowns and shakes her head.  “No, it’s not.”  She argues.  “It’s easy.”

          “For you, Parker.  Not for everyone.”  Sophie says.  “You practiced for a long time to make it feel that easy.”

          “Oh.”  Parker says.  “Yeah, I guess so.  But where do I start?”

          “At the beginning.”  Sophie says.  “The first thing a good grifter does is get the attention of their mark.”

          She sees the look cross Parker’s face and knows exactly what the young thief is thinking.  Parker’s job is to not get noticed.  If she does her job right, no one knows she’s been there until they go looking for what she stole.  Sophie’s quite positive there are collections around the world that don’t know Parker has visited them.  

          But being a grifter is about stepping into someone’s life and leaving them so turned upside down and backwards that they willingly hand over the keys to the car, the combination to the safe, and the code to shut off the alarm.  And if they want to give her a few bejeweled necklaces, well, she’s not turning them down.  

          “Look out in the bar.”  Sophie says, gesturing to the monitors that still have the security camera stream running.  The bar is still mostly empty this time of day, late enough in the afternoon that the lunch crowd has left and early enough that the dinner-and-drinks people haven’t, for the most part, arrived.  There are a few people, though, and that’s enough for now.  “Pick a mark.”

          Parker squints at the screen.  “Her.”  She says, pointing to the image of a woman somewhere between Sophie’s and Parker’s ages.  “I pick her.”

          “Good. Now tell me what you see about her.”  

          “She’s a redhead.”  Parker says.  Sophie waits for more, but Parker is just staring at her expectantly.

          “Good start.”  Sophie says.  “Keep going.”

          It takes longer for Parker to respond.  “She’s eating alone.”  Parker finally says.  “Just a salad.  But she’s at a table for two instead of sitting at the bar.”

          Sophie’s momentarily taken aback at that observation.  But, she reminds herself, Parker does observe for a living too.  Just in a different way.  It’s not surprising that she can pick up on these details.  

          “What might that tell you?”

          “She doesn’t know how good the burgers are here.”  Parker says, cracking a smile.  “Or maybe she’s vegetarian?  But you don’t come to a bar, by yourself, to eat a salad.  That’s just strange.”

          “So why is she here?”

          Parker studies the screen.  “She’s dressed up pretty nice.”  She offers.  “Maybe - maybe she was supposed to meet someone?  Oh, and they stood her up?”  

          “A very real possibility.”  Sophie agrees.  It’s certainly the conclusion she came to when she first spotted the woman.  “So now you have a theory.  The next part is a bit harder.  What do you do with what you’ve learned?”

          “Punch whoever stood her up.”  Parker says.  “That’s mean.”

          “Punching is Eliot’s job.”  Sophie says, though there’s a smile on her face.  “I meant about your mark.  How would you approach her?  Pretend she has some information you need, something you can’t just take out of her pocket.”

          “Oh.  That’s harder.”  Parker says.  She turns back to the screen.  “I don’t know.  What would you do?”

          Sophie considers for a moment.  “I’d probably sit at a table near here and wait a few minutes.  Sigh a few times, glance at my phone.  Glance over and ask her if she’s been stood up too.  We commiserate over men, soon enough we’re getting drinks and she’s telling me about her life.”  

          “That wouldn’t work.”  Parker says.  “For me, I mean.  I don’t do small talk very well.  But maybe I could pretend to be a waitress?  And offer her a drink on the house.  People like it when you give them free things.”

          “Very good.”  Sophie says.  Parker’s way might or might not work - but then again, the same could be said about Sophie’s way.  Every person is different, and they respond to being conned differently.  “It’s about playing to your strengths while still doing just a little more than what the person is expecting.”

          Parker nods.  She jumps up and throws her arms around Sophie in a quick hug.  “Thanks, Sophie.”

          Sophie watches her bounce out of the room, no doubt to tell Hardison what she’s just learned.  “Any time, Parker.”

 


End file.
